Bush concerns conservatives
Personally, I’ve been upset at President Bush for not putting up a fight against adding prescription drugs to Medicare (Cheap play for votes IMO). GWB’s support for extending unemployment benefits didn’t win him any brownie points with me, nor did his steel tariffs, etc.
But like Michelle Goldberg lays out in this Salon article, I’m not the only one. I don’t disagree on foreign policy matters with the “neocons” as much as most of the folks in this article, but the rest rings true.
I’ve been less than impressed with Salon lately and was considering letting my subscription lapse, but this may keep me paying. What was driving me away was a complete and total lack of any Iraq coverage which did not immediately swerve over into either talk of quagmire, etc. I’m not saying that those aren’t valid threads, it’s just that it’s missing the relative successes the Allies have had in Iraq.
In any case, it’s good to see a little bit of balance making it onto the pages again. I don’t know that I would put too much hope into the impending destruction from within of the Republican Party; I’m much more concerned/optimistic about the shakeout in the Democrat ranks. I still think that it is just a matter of time until WMDs are found in Iraq; at which point many of the current presidential hopefuls will loose much of their platforms. I don’t think that Senator Clinton running for Pres in 2004 will be the panacea that some do – there will be allegations that President Clinton cost VP Gore the 2000 election (more so than the Florida voters), etc.
3 Responses to “Bush concerns conservatives”
Comment from jank
Time July 28, 2003 at 8:48 am
‘Perception is Reality’, but yeah. There’s not a lot of emphasis on ‘Truth’ in business school.
As far as concern for how the US looks in the eyes of the world – it’s nice to know, but I am all for US foreign policy that puts US interests first.
During the Cold War, much of the rest of the world was non-commital when faced with supporting the US/supporting the Soviets. Granted, US action may have lead to the deaths of thousands, mostly in Central America, but there was wholesale slaughter (20 million under Stalin alone) in the Soviet Union. If we’d done nothing but listen to the ‘perception of the US in the eyes of the rest of the world,’ there’d be many more still living under central planning and communist totalitarianism. Even the recent advances in human rights and market opportunities in China in the ’90’s may not have happened if we hadn’t spent the Soviet Union out of existance in the ’80’s.
The ‘perception of the US in the eyes of the rest of the world’ was that we were wrong for escalating the arms race. At least that’s the perception that comes across on the European news wires. I’m betting that the perception in Poland, the various Balkan states, etc, is thanks for removing the USSR’s boot from their necks.
Comment from cynsmith
Time July 30, 2003 at 10:45 pm
Yes, the Poles can be counted on to love the Americans. I suspect they’d learn to hate us eventually if Warsaw held any promise as a tourist destination.
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Comment from etrigan
Time July 28, 2003 at 7:12 am
I am almost with you on the poor coverage of Iraq, but the regular inclusion of “The world press on…” tends to cover the gaps. And I’m a big fan of knowing the perception of the US in the eyes of the rest of the world. (Don’t they teach in management classes that “perception is truth”?)